"I shall here present the view that numbers, even whole numbers, are words, parts of speech, and that mathematics is their grammar. Numbers were therefore invented by people in the same sense that language, both written and spoken, was invented. Grammar is also an invention. Words and numbers have no existence separate from the people who use them. Knowledge of mathematics is transmitted from one generation to another, and it changes in the same slow way that language changes. Continuity is provided by the process of oral or written transmission."
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Carl Eckart
Carl Henry Eckart (May 4, 1902, in St. Louis, Missouri β October 23, 1973, in La Jolla, California) was an American physicist, physical oceanographer, geophysicist, and administrator. He co-developed the Wigner-Eckart theorem and is also known for the Eckart conditions in quantum mechanics.
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